directions and solutions

a) Every nation has to have some well-defined political goals that can be communicated as the main targets of the entire community. Since 2010 these official aims – among others – are the development of tourism based on natural resources, especially on geothermal energy and thermal water, and the expansion of the extent of cultivated territory in Hungary. What does this mean from the viewpoint of our topic? On the one hand a standardized and consensual Roma policy must become one of these main goals communicated towards the voters, and on the other hand, social cooperatives and other forms of the developing social economy can both contribute to the transformation of the Hungarian agriculture, and the enhancement of economic strengths of the Roma population.

Moreover, resuscitation of traditional Roma handicraft professions is a real – although restricted – possibility. there are several professions that must be opened up before Roma citizens; e.g. becoming a lawyer, a teacher,⁶¹² a policeman with a Roma background in most of the cases requires positive discrimination (affirmative action).

b) according to Solymosi’s thesis, any intervention into the Roma community’s life is effective, if the following interventions are implemented at the same time:⁶¹³ ba) Giving fish – Superficial intervention focusing on symptoms, neglecting reasons;

e.g. rehabilitation of Roma ghettos

bb) Teaching to weave a fishing net – Operative intervention, neglecting why the reasons developed; e.g. Creating jobs, adult education, improvement of housing bc) Fish-pond – Preventive intervention, influencing the development of reasons;

e.g. fighting children’s poverty.

bd) (Awaking) need for eating fish – Foundational intervention, without direct effect, but providing prerequisites and a framework; e.g. developing communities, local health development programs improving health education.

612 there are very few teachers of Roma origin. according a teachers’ survey of 2002 in 898 elementary schools with a high rate of Romani pupils altogether only 45 teachers declared themselves Roma or of Roma origin [from 27730].

613 Solymosi József Bonifác: Health Component of the National Roma Integration Strategy, 22–23. http://

www.romadecade.org/files/downloads/Better%20Health%20Conference/Jozsef%20SOLYMOSY%20 NRIS%20Heatlh%20component%20Hungary%20pdf[1].pdf > accessed 12 april 2012

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c) In the last few years it has become obvious that projects should last for longer than one year periods. More time is ordinarily needed to establish and operate programs.

d) Project efforts should be located very close to Roma settlements and markets.

Projects need to have – at least partially – independence of state and business sectors to build Roma self-reliance.

e) according to nancy Fraser the ‘struggle for recognition’ has been fast becoming the paradigmatic form of political conflict in the late twentieth century. Demands for

‘recognition of difference’ – stated Fraser more than fifteen years ago – fuel struggles of groups mobilised under the banners of nationality, ethnicity, ‘race,’ etc.⁶¹⁴ in these

‘postsocialist’ conflicts, group identity supplants class interest as the chief medium of political mobilisation. Cultural domination supplants exploitation as the fundamental injustice, and in addition, cultural recognition displaces socioeconomic redistribution as the remedy for injustice and the goal of political struggle.⁶¹⁵ Consequently, durable changes require involvement of both the prominent representatives of the majority of the society and the prominent representatives of the given minority. the previous ones can successfully accelerate and back several aspirations and activities, doing it without simulating or replacing self-reliance of the given group or strata which struggles for certain cultural goals.

Fortunately, concerning our topic new tendencies have arisen in the first decade of the twenty-first century: few opulent and well-known Hungarians offered huge amounts for the education and training of talented Roma pupils. one of these was Sándor Demján, who made a pledge of 8 billion forints (approximately 40 million dollars that time) for a 5 year long period in July 2006.

the two foundations linked to Csányi Sándor do similar activities: the Csányi Foundation and the new europe Foundation provide hundreds of millions of forints (1–2 million dollars / year) in order to support the training, studies and social integra-tion of basically disadvantaged children and young people.

f) the legal situation surrounding the Roma must be addressed; the underlying facts and circumstances of the legal regulation are to be examined.

the issue of discrimination emerged on the visible national agenda in connec-tion with the debates generated by the process leading to the adopconnec-tion of a compre-hensive anti-discrimination law in late 2003 [ETA – Equal Treatment Act]. The law which is related to article 13 eC created the equal treatment authority – an organ responsible for combatting all sorts and forms of discrimination – not only in edu-cation but in all other areas as well. the authority started to operate on February 1 2005. Of course, Hungary has ratified almost all major international legal instruments

614 Nancy Fraser: Az újraelosztástól az elismerésig? Az igazságosság dilemmái a poszt-szocializmus ko-rában. [From redistribution to recognition? Dilemmas of justice in the post-socialist era.] 337. In: Kende Anna – Vajda Róza: Rasszizmus a tudományban. [Racism in the science] Napvilág Kiadó, Budapest, 2008. 321–346.

615 ibid.

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combatting discrimination, like the uneSCo convention against Discrimination in education, ilo convention no.111, or the international Convention on he elimina-tion of all forms of Racial Discriminaelimina-tion. Hungary is also part of the european Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and others.⁶¹⁶ educational law and other sectorial laws used to contain separate and quite inconsistent anti-discrimination provisions,⁶¹⁷ which have been amended to invoke the provisions of the ETA. The ETA distinguishes three types of exceptions [a] gen-eral objective justification, [b] special exceptions, [c] positive action.⁶¹⁸

Here, the importance of embracing group-specific rights in the policies for Roma representation must be emphasized.⁶¹⁹

alternative institutions for securing Roma rights were discussed (e.g. heads of state and government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the judicial system, the parliament). the need to reform the Roma self-government system in Hungary in order to provide adequate representational rights for this marginalized ethnic minor-ity was also addressed and several changes have happened already: a Framework agreement has been signed by the national Roma Self-government (országos Roma Önkormányzat – oRÖ) and the government of Hungary. the main reason behind the Framework agreement was that several problems of the previous programs and strategic objectives became obvious:

they were not linked with a comprehensive monitoring, it was not possible to measure success.

• The use of resources was doubtful in many ways.

• It’s not known how many people had been involved in the programs.

• It’s not known how many of those sources had been reached by Roma.

The Government and ORÖ – among other measures – jointly undertook to cre-ate 100,000 new workplaces for Romas (especially for Roma women), vocational training for 80,000 Roma adults, and the education of 5000 Roma students in higher education. The Government undertook financial support, administrative support, and the enactment of those legal instruments that are needed for the implementation of the goals mentioned above. the national Roma Self government undertook the ’staff’

for the preparation, organization and arrangement of processes by providing Roma coordinators who will be able to communcate and cooperate with the members of the Roma communities in a less bureaucratic way.

the Hungarian eu Presidency (2011) rendered among its priorities the elabora-tion of an eu Roma strategy. at the same time, the Hungarian Roma strategy – focus-ing not exclusively on the Roma – was elaborated. it was called the national Social

616 Pál tamás (n 552) 11.

617 E.g.: to decrease segregation, a few years ago even school district borders have been adjusted so that the disadvantaged population in each district does not exceed the average percentage of disadvantaged in the settlement as a whole by more than 15 percent.

618 Pál tamás (n 552) 11.

619 andrew Burton: Minority Self-governance: Minority Representation in Flux for the Hungarian Roma.

ethnopolitics (2007) volume 6, issue 1, 67–88.

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inclusion Strategy – deep poverty, child poverty, Roma from 2011 to 2020, and – both essentially and formally – the framework agreement between the Prime Minister and the President of the national Roma Self-government was linked to this strategy.

Regarding the Roma question and the issues of Roma policy – which are per-haps some of the most pressing problems of Hungary – it can be said that in the past thirty years, the enthusiastic initiatives of certain governments (political statements, integration programs) were unfortunately not followed by legislative changes, and concrete actions.⁶²⁰ Furthermore, it is worth noting that ‘the actual and formal equal-ity of the citizens belonging to a national minorequal-ity cannot be achieved only by legal means, for this it is necessary to change society’s approach and attitudes’.⁶²¹ See also in Part VI, subchapter 2.2.2. on co-decision

g) Programs – both on national and european level – are to be launched:

ga) Currently, most public funds designated to the Roma population are related to the strategic plan of the Decade of the Roma integration Program.⁶²² the main goals of this program are (as follows):

accelerate the social integration of Roma and improve their economic situation;

• Reduce the gap between the socioeconomic conditions of the Roma and non-Roma populations in the short term and eliminate the gap in the long term; and strengthen social cohesion.

• gb) Owing to the supporting role taken by the Hungarian EU Presidency, the need to devote attention to the issue of the Roma and the promotion of national efforts in this respect became a highly consensual issue. in response to the communication by the european Commission, the Hungarian Presidency proposed the draft Council conclusions of ‘an eu Framework for national Roma integration Strategies up to 2020’ which were adopted by the employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer affairs Council on 19 May. the conclusions stress the Member States’

primary competence concerning the inclusion of marginalized and disadvantaged communities, such as Roma; in order to improve the situation of the Roma, Member States developed inclusion strategies or integrated sets of policy measures within their broader social inclusion policies by the end of 2011. the document calls on the Member States to make efforts for the effective use of eu funds and to consider taking into account the goal of the inclusion of the Roma increasingly when designing, implementing and monitoring their national Reform Programmes. By the spring of 2012, the Commission assessed the national strategies and reported back to the european Parliament and the Council.⁶²³

620 Majtényi Balázs – Majtényi György: Üveggyöngyhatás. Változatlan romapolitika. [Glass Effect. Roma policy unchanged.] Fundamentum 2012/1. 67.

621 ibid.

622 government measures were funded from the budget and the resources of the new Hungary Develop-ment Plan until 2010.

623 The most important achievements of the Hungarian presidency. pp. 11–12. http://www.mfa.gov.hu/nR/

rdonlyres/aFa97CC8-53C6-4C2C-a1F5D7a527CFF/0/eredmenyekven.pdf>accessed 24 April 2013

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gc) Roma ngos need support in building international relationships as well.

Currently, with few exceptions like oSi’s cultural network programs, Roma lack connections with groups in other countries. Coordinators are needed to establish relations between the Roma and non-Roma organizations operating in different countries and to organize joint projects.⁶²⁴

h) the socialization experiences of the relevant actors (of both sides) were still gained in the old authoritarian-bureaucratic system⁶²⁵ built on several prejudices and fears.

that’s why the culture of protest, as a functional segment of political culture is still rudimentary in Hungary, and there are several problems which should be solved by processes of political learning.⁶²⁶

The majority of Hungarian society tends to show racist tendencies in many ways; the most notable of which was the appearance of paramilitary groups and or-ganizations, such as the Hungarian guard (Magyar gárda). Several enactments and legal decisions have been made against the frightening presence of those entities, but further measures of precaution are to be taken.

‘the ethnicity- and race-based opinions expressed at the demonstrations and events organized by the Hungarian guard against »gypsy crime«, in fact breached the basic principle of the right to human dignity. The Hungarian Guard has […] turned discrimination into an agenda. in order to express this, the Hungarian guard has held intimidating demonstrations on several occasions.’ – the Supreme Court expressed in its verdict approving the dissolution of the guard. in 2011, as one of the successors of the banned Hungarian guard, the new Hungarian guard hate group continues to organize such demonstrations.⁶²⁷ Moreover, social sciences draw attention to the confirmed fact that disadvantaged groups tend to generate multitudinous and violent actions after reaching a ‘critical mass’.⁶²⁸

First, police training lies at the heart of preventing more racially-motivated violence. If racist violence is committed, police must benefit from good training to collect evidence so that the prosecution can correctly define the nature of the crime committed. indeed, if the investigation at the crime scene is incomplete and racial motives are not uncovered, the justice system cannot ensure full accountability.⁶²⁹ But are local police adequately trained to cope with lower-level, day-to-day incidents

624 Empowering Roma Youth… (n 501) 34.

625 Szabó Máté (2009) (n 483) 262.

626 ibid.

627 http://www.athenainstitute.eu/en/map/olvas/42>accessed 11 April 2012

628 Rixer Ádám: Egy új társadalmi szerződés körvonalai a roma kérdés ürügyén. [The outlines of a new social contract on the pretext of the Roma issue] De iurisprudentia et iure publico (DieiP) 2009/3. 11.

(www.dieip.hu)

629 Joelle Fiss: Roma Citizens Remain At Risk In Hungary, Reforms Needed. The Huffington Post, Febru-ary 23, 2010. http://www.szema.hu/index.php/english/148-roma-citizens-remain-at-risk-in-hungFebru-ary- http://www.szema.hu/index.php/english/148-roma-citizens-remain-at-risk-in-hungary-reforms-needed (2012. 02. 25.)

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of harassment and violence that may not hit the headlines as hard? Police need to adapt conflict resolution mechanisms to their local contexts.⁶³⁰

Secondly, Hungarian law enforcement authorities should consider making concerted efforts to include more Hungarians of Roma origin into police units in order to break down the cognitive sentiment of ‘us against them’ that feeds into social tensions.⁶³¹

We have to transform the deeply entrenched anti-Roma stereotypes that are harboured at many levels within Hungarian society – in private circles, in the politi-cal arena and in the media.⁶³² ‘We must try to understand what is happening, under what circumstances, who the main actors are, what their aims and motivations are, but we should be very cautious about judging the process and the results. Application of theories, comparison with developments in other parts of the world or in other periods of history will only be fertile if we are extremely careful with generalization and value judgments.’⁶³³

‘gypsy crime’, ‘gypsy criminality’ is a problematic notion the usage of which has been infiltrated into the public discourse as a mainstream concept. To handle the usage of these expressions (and of many others, similar to these) in public speech is one of the most enormous challenges in Hungary today: to enhance real soci-ety’s knowledge on the distinction between ‘gypsy crime’ or ‘gypsy criminality’

(‘cigánybűnözés’) that are racist expressions, criminalizing all the Roma living in Hungary and Gypsy criminality habits (‘cigány bűnelkövetési szokások’⁶³⁴) that could be measured even statistically. the latter shows the typical features of the criminality within a specific stratum of Hungarian society without criminalizing all the members of that group in general. even these differences are to be taught nowadays.

unfortunately, there has been no consensus on the usage and meaning of these notions even among the representatives of Hungarian criminal sciences for many years; many have chosen the way of totally neglecting that problem, avoiding even mentioning of these words (gypsy, roma) at all.⁶³⁵

i) Specifically, if we ask why Roma are under-represented in the national assemblies of central and eastern european states, one of the realistic answers is the absence of a clearly defined conception of Roma nationalism at the national and transnational level.⁶³⁶ this ambiguous nationalism stands in contrast with invocations of

630 ibid.

631 ibid.

632 ibid.

633 Kuti (1998) (n 25)

634 Póczik Szilveszter: Roma bűnelkövetők kriminológiai vizsgálata – 2002. http://www.szochalo.hu/

hireink/article/101090/3218/page/1/>accessed 22 February 2012

635 See as an example: Szabó Győző: A közrend és közbiztonság aktuális kérdései. [The current issues of public policing and public security.] In: A közbiztonság és közrend aktuális kérdései. [The current issues of public policing and public security] Magyar Kriminológiai Társaság, Budapest, 1991. 6–19.

636 Aidan McGarry: Ambiguous nationalism? Explaining the parliamentary under-representation of the Roma in Hungary and Romania. Romani Studies (2009) vol. 19, issue 2, 22.

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nationalism by other minorities in the region, notably the turkish minority in Bulgaria and the Hungarian minority in Romania, whose electoral support is contiguous to their respective demographic weights. Both of these minorities link nationalism to specific cultural interests whereas the interests of Roma tend to relate to socio-economic and political factors. Whilst many factors conspire to impede the appropriate political representation of Roma across central and eastern europe, this article seeks to shed light on the oft-neglected impact of Roma nationalism.⁶³⁷

as a matter of fact, initiatives intended to create a Romani nation or, as it is sometimes described, ‘creating a conceptually and institutionally separate political entity’, only resemble programmes for social integration and equality of opportunity because, in articulating their target group, they ethnicise all social and political issues.

ultimately, such initiatives are anachronistic, violent and futile.⁶³⁸

j) Together with Act CXXX of 2011 on Legislation another law on public reconciliation of norms with society (act CXXXi of 2011) entered into force in Hungary on 1 January 2011 to enable the participation of individuals, from natural persons to so called strategic partners, in legislation.

in dialogue between governmental bodies and different civil entities in Hun-gary, more effective guarantees need to be forced because of the fact that all the existing legal regulations on obligatory involvement of civil actors are so called lex imperfectas. it means that the possibility of participation of ngos in different areas of public life (for example the legislative process) exists as a mere consequence of momentary political etiquette. there are some newly created institutions [e.g. na-tional Cooperation Fund (Nemzeti Együttműködési Alap)].

k) Today’s education policy in Hungary identifies integration as a political, social and pedagogical aim,⁶³⁹ even though it was not a story of success in the last decade.⁶⁴⁰⁶⁴¹ It pays special attention to financing special needs education. There have been many attempts to invent integrated education adapted for the Hungarian – and also for the Hungarian Roma – situation. e.g. the national educational integration network (ooiH) launched a program in 2003 that focused on the integrated education of primary school children (grades 1 through 8) in 45 schools in Hungary. the goal of the program was to compensate for the educational disadvantages of children

637 ibid.

638 Aladár Horváth: Gadjo Nation – Roma Nation? http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2655>accessed 11 May 2012

639 Kőpatakiné Mészáros Mária: Special Needs Education in Hungary – Supportive Education Policy. OFI, Budapest, 2009. http://www.ofi.hu/tudastar/iii-resz-country-report/special-needs-education>accessed 4 april 2012

640 Kertesi Gábor – Kézdi Gábor: Cigányok és iskola. [Romas and school] Educatio Kiadó, Budapest, 1996.

641 Andl Helga: Egyszervolt iskola. Esettanulmány egy iskola megszűnéséről. [Once upon a time there was a school: case study regarding the cessation of a school] Új Pedagógiai Szemle 2008/11–12. 153.

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from poor and/or minority families by providing quality education in an integrated environment.⁶⁴²

However, the real task is still the creation of consent between the interests of different communities, education policy, legislative regulation and possibilities of institutions. that kind of harmonizing requires a comprehensive (wide range) social and professional conciliation which was the missing element in the past in Hungary.

l) Financial issues of Roma organisations

One of the main objectives is to fulfill the communication gap between Roma citizens and the Hungarian state with civil institutions. in many cases their operation is limited in financial resources.⁶⁴³

Central budgetary support in the form of invitations to tender is available for the further professional training and preparation for public activities of representa-tives of the local Roma minority self-governments, as well as members of Roma social organizations. the aim of programmes based on the particular demands of the locality is to strengthen cooperation between Roma minority self-governments and organizations and the self-governments and public administrative organizations of settlements, and to reinforce dialogue between the different strata in public life.⁶⁴⁴

Beyond the financial support of public foundations in the past and Wekerle Sán-dor Fund Management in the future, national Civil Fund and its successor, national Fund of Cooperation is to be mentioned, as an entity (re)distributing a huge amount towards (Roma) civil society.

Concerning private funds revenues originating from 1 percent of the personal income tax designation must be mentioned. the amount collected usually covers only related advertising and other administration expenses.

among many other grants the Roma inclusion grant⁶⁴⁵ – founded by george Soros – had supported nonprofit legal entities (non-governmental and public organizations, libraries, museums, cultural centers, associations, communities, registered charities, etc.) that work in the field of arts and culture and have the

642 Kézdi Gábor – Surányi Éva: Sampling and Methodology in the Evaluation of the National Education Integration Program, and the Conclusions of the Evaluation. Mintavétel és elemzési módszerek az oktatási integrációs program hatásvizsgálatában, és a hatásvizsgálatból levonható következtetések.

Budapest Working Papers On The Labour Market / Budapest Munkagazdaságtani Füzetek BWP – 2010/2. Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Közgazdaságtudományi Intézet, Budapest, 2010. 4.

643 lucia Sedlakova – tatiana tokolyova: Development of the Civil Society of the visegrad Region. in:

istván tarrósy (ed.): Social, economic and Political Cohesion in the Danube Region in light of eu enlargement. CeP, Bratislava, 2007. 37.

644 Doncsev (n 502) 38.

645 http://www.soros.org/initiatives/arts/focus/roma/grants>accessed 20 november 2013

In document Civil SoCiety in HungaRy (Pldal 188-197)